ninth edition

STEPHEN P. ROBBINS

Chapter

2007 Prentice Hall, Inc.

All rights reserved.

MARY COULTER

Organizational Culture
and Environment:
The Constraints

PowerPoint Presentation by Charlie Cook

The University of West Alabama

LEARNING OUTLINE
Follow this Learning Outline as you read and study this chapter.

The Manager: Omnipotent or Symbolic

Contrast the action of manager according to the
omnipotent and symbolic views.
Explain the parameters of managerial discretion.

The Organizations Culture

Describe the seven dimensions of organizational culture.
Discuss the impact of a strong culture on organizations
and managers.
Explain the source of an organization s culture.
Describe how culture is transmitted to employees.
Describe how culture affects managers.
2007 Prentice Hall, Inc. All rights reserved.

32

L E A R N I N G O U T L I N E (contd)
Follow this Learning Outline as you read and study this chapter.

Current Organizational Cultural Issues Facing

Managers
Describe the characteristics of an ethical culture, an
innovative culture, and a customer-responsive culture.
Discuss why workplace spirituality seems to be an
important concern.
Describe the characteristics of a spiritual organization.

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L E A R N I N G O U T L I N E (contd)
Follow this Learning Outline as you read and study this chapter.

The Environment (contd)

Describe the components of the specific and general
environments.
Discuss the two dimensions of environmental
uncertainty.
Identify the most common organizational stakeholders.
Explain the four steps in managing external stakeholder
relationships.

2007 Prentice Hall, Inc. All rights reserved.

34

The Manager: Omnipotent or Symbolic?

Omnipotent View of Management
Managers are directly responsible for an
organizations success or failure.
The quality of the organization is determined by the
quality of its managers.
Managers are held accountable
for an organizations performance
yet it is difficult to attribute
good or poor performance
directly to their influence
on the organization.

2007 Prentice Hall, Inc. All rights reserved.

35

The Manager: Omnipotent or Symbolic?

Symbolic View of Management
Much of an organizations success or failure is due to
external forces outside of managers control.
The ability of managers to affect outcomes is
influenced and constrained by external factors.

The economy, customers, governmental policies,

competitors, industry conditions,
technology, and the actions of
previous managers

Managers symbolize control and

influence through their action.

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36

Exhibit 31 Parameters of Managerial Discretion

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37

The Organizations Culture

Organizational Culture
A system of shared meanings and common beliefs
held by organizational members that determines, in a
large degree, how they act towards each other.
The way we do things around here.

Values, symbols, rituals, myths, and practices

Implications:

Culture is a perception.

Culture is shared.

Culture is descriptive.

2007 Prentice Hall, Inc. All rights reserved.

38

Exhibit 32 Dimensions of Organizational Culture

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Exhibit 33 Contrasting Organizational Cultures

Dimension

Organization A

Organization B

High
Low

Low
High

Low
Low

High
High

Stability

Low
High

High
Low

Innovation and Risk Taking

Low

High

Attention to Detail
Outcome Orientation
People Orientation
Team Orientation
Aggressiveness

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310

Strong versus Weak Cultures

Strong Cultures
Are cultures in which key values are deeply held and
widely held.
Have a strong influence on organizational members.

Factors Influencing the Strength of Culture

Size of the organization
Age of the organization
Rate of employee turnover
Strength of the original culture
Clarity of cultural values and beliefs
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311

Benefits of a Strong Culture

Creates a stronger employee commitment to the
organization.
Aids in the recruitment and socialization of new
employees.
Fosters higher organizational
performance by instilling and
promoting employee initiative.

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312

Organizational Culture
Sources of Organizational Culture
The organizations founder

Vision and mission

Past practices of the organization

The way things have been done

The behavior of top management

Continuation of the Organizational Culture

Recruitment of like-minded employees who fit
Socialization of new employees to help them adapt
to the culture

2007 Prentice Hall, Inc. All rights reserved.

313

Exhibit 34 Strong versus Weak Organizational Cultures

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314

How Employees Learn Culture

Stories
Narratives of significant events or actions of people that convey
the spirit of the organization

Rituals
Repetitive sequences of activities that express and reinforce the
values of the organization

Material Symbols
Physical assets distinguishing the organization

Language
Acronyms and jargon of terms, phrases, and word meanings
specific to an organization

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315

How Culture Affects Managers

Cultural Constraints on Managers
Whatever managerial actions the organization
recognizes as proper or improper on its behalf
Whatever organizational activities the organization
values and encourages
The overall strength or weakness of the
organizational culture
Simple rule for getting ahead in an organization:
Find out what the organization rewards and do those things.

2007 Prentice Hall, Inc. All rights reserved.

316

Exhibit 35 How an Organizations Culture Is Established

and Maintained

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Exhibit 36 Managerial Decisions Affected by Culture

Planning
The degree of risk that plans should contain
Whether plans should be developed by individuals or teams
The degree of environmental scanning in which management
will engage
Organizing
How much autonomy should be designed into employees jobs
Whether tasks should be done by individuals or in teams
The degree to which department managers interact with each
other

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Exhibit 36 Managerial Decisions Affected by Culture (contd)

Leading
The degree to which managers are concerned with increasing
employee job satisfaction
What leadership styles are appropriate
Whether all disagreementseven constructive onesshould
be eliminated
Controlling
Whether to impose external controls or to allow employees to
control their own actions
What criteria should be emphasized in employee performance
evaluations
What repercussions will occur from exceeding ones budget

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319

Organization Culture Issues

Creating an Ethical
Culture
High in risk tolerance
Low to moderate
aggressiveness
Focus on means as
well as outcomes

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Creating an Innovative
Culture
Challenge and
involvement
Freedom
Trust and openness
Idea time
Playfulness/humor
Conflict resolution
Debates
Risk-taking
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Exhibit 37 Suggestions for Managers: Creating a More Ethical Culture

Be a visible role model.

Communicate ethical expectations.
Provide ethics training.
Visibly reward ethical acts and punish unethical
ones.
Provide protective mechanisms so employees can
discuss ethical dilemmas and report unethical
behavior without fear.

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321

Organization Culture Issues (contd)

Creating a Customer-Responsive Culture
Hiring the right type of employees (ones with a strong
interest in serving customers)
Having few rigid rules, procedures, and regulations
Using widespread empowerment of employees
Having good listening skills in relating to customers
messages
Providing role clarity to employees to reduce
ambiguity and conflict and increase job satisfaction
Having conscientious, caring employees willing to
take initiative
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Exhibit 38 Suggestions for Managers: Creating a More CustomerResponsive Culture

Hire service-contact people with the personality and attitudes
consistent with customer servicefriendliness, enthusiasm,
attentiveness, patience, concern about others, and listening skills.
Train customer service people continuously by focusing on
improving product knowledge, active listening, showing patience,
and displaying emotions.
Socialize new service-contact people to the organizations goals and
values.
Design customer-service jobs so that employees have as much
control as necessary to satisfy customers.
Empower service-contact employees with the discretion to make
day-to-day decisions on job-related activities.
As the leader, convey a customer-focused vision and demonstrate
through decisions and actions the commitment to customers.
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323

Spirituality and Organizational Culture

Workplace Spirituality
The recognition that people have an inner life that
nourishes and is nourished by meaningful work that
takes place in the context of community.

Characteristics of a Spiritual Organization

Strong sense of purpose
Focus on individual development
Trust and openness
Employee empowerment
Toleration of employees expression
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Benefits of Spirituality
Improved employee productivity
Reduction of employee turnover
Stronger organizational performance
Increased creativity
Increased employee satisfaction
Increased team performance
Increased organizational performance

2007 Prentice Hall, Inc. All rights reserved.

325

Defining the External Environment

External Environment
Those factors and forces outside the organization that
affect the organizations performance.

Components of the External Environment

Specific environment: external forces that have a
direct and immediate impact on the organization.
General environment: broad economic, sociocultural, political/legal, demographic, technological,
and global conditions that may affect the organization.

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Exhibit 39 The External Environment

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Exhibit 310 Selected U.S. Legislation Affecting Business

Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970
Consumer Product Safety Act of 1972
Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972
Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Civil Rights Act of 1991
Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
Child Safety Protection Act of 1994
U.S. Economic Espionage Act of 1996
Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act of 2000
Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003
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328

How the Environment Affects Managers

Environmental Uncertainty
The extent to which managers have knowledge of
and are able to predict change their organizations
external environment is affected by:

Complexity of the environment: the number of components

in an organizations external environment.

Degree of change in environmental components: how

dynamic or stable the external environment is.

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Exhibit 311 Environmental Uncertainty Matrix

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Stakeholder Relationships
Stakeholders
Any constituencies in the organizations environment
that are affected by the organizations decisions and
actions

Why Manage Stakeholder Relationships?

It can lead to improved organizational performance.
Its the right thing to do given the interdependence
of the organization and its external stakeholders.

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331

Managing Stakeholder Relationships

1. Identify the organizations external
stakeholders.
2. Determine the particular interests and
concerns of the external stakeholders.
3. Decide how critical each external stakeholder
is to the organization.
4. Determine how to manage each individual
external stakeholder relationship.

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Exhibit 312 Organizational Stakeholders

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Terms to Know
omnipotent view of
management
symbolic view of
management
organizational culture
strong cultures
socialization

2007 Prentice Hall, Inc. All rights reserved.

workplace spirituality
external environment
specific environment
general environment
environmental uncertainty
environmental complexity
stakeholders

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